Morning
by Maxwell Adams 999
Summary: 6 months after the Arcadia Bay incident, Max and Chloe's lives are finally calming down. Fluffy one-shot featuring a nightmare, tears and "meh" quality writing. Pricefield.


Max woke up feeling strangely happy. Being honest with herself, this was a rare occurrence. It had rarely happened over the past few years, the time she had been away from Arcadia Bay. Seattle had been cool. Very "hip" as her dad had put it and if she was honest with herself, she could admit that there were parts of it she had enjoyed. It was very picturesque, good coffee, good music... she would love to go there with Chloe sometime. And that was just it wasn't it? Chloe hadn't been there. Not in person, not behind a screen and not even on a piece of paper.

Having collected enough of her dozing conscience, she acknowledged a bright sunray aimed straight for her eyes, its light piercing the thin layer of protection her eyelids provided.

Shifting slightly in an attempt to escape the uncomfortable brightness, she discovered a warm body laying next hers. Finally opening her eyes, she tried to decipher her blurry surroundings.

 _Ok, not my room. Not even in a school dorm. Where am I?_

Her confusion ended when she spotted slender alabaster arms that led to a black t-shirt with some band design on them. Her eyes traced the slender neck of her partner and came to a rest on the back of her head, topped as always by unkempt blue hair.

After realizing that staring intently at someone while they slept, girlfriend or not, was just a tad on the creepy side, she took the time to observe the rest of the room. The light filtered red through the closed curtains that did little to stop it, giving the room an easy-on-eyes, red tint. She vaguely considered getting her camera out and "immortalizing the moment" as an over-enthusiastic shop-keeper put it when giving her a roll of film, amusing Chloe to no end, but realized she had forgotten her camera at her place.

 _Have to remember that next time_ , she though.

Hearing the rustle of bedclothes and a groan, Max turned to her girlfriend was only just rousing herself from sleep's clutches. Smiling, Max lifted a hand over her partner's face and poked her cheek. The disgruntled groan that she received as a reply served only to widen her grin and encourage her further, not that any encouragement was needed in the first place. Another poke resulted in a groan, a mumbled "Stop ih…" and yet another in a blearily opened eye delivering a most formidable death-stare.

"Good morning." She greeted.

"urrgh…"

"Sleep well?" she tried again.

"mmm-hmm…" Max took that as a yes.

"It's remarkable how similar this place looks to your old bedroom."

Chloe finally shifted at that and looked around at her one-week old room, in their one-week old house bought at the start of the new one-week old chapter of their lives. She nodded in agreement. "Yeah it's alright I guess."

"You've even got the illuminati drawing back on the wall." Max noticed with a grin.

Indeed, the illuminati symbol was drawn on the wall, as it was in many other of Chloe's possessions, next to several other doodles including _Max and Cloe were here._

Ok I guess some explaining is in order here. After Arcadia Bay was destroyed by a freak tornado, Chloe and Max had fled from the town and camped in Cloe's truck in a nearby park before hearing from Joyce, who had luckily escaped with only a couple of bones broken and a sprained wrist.

All of this had been almost 6 months ago and things were only just starting to settle down. Max's parents, mainly her mum actually, had insisted that she return to Seattle and since Joyce, Chloe and David had been left without a home, they had tagged along and become neighbours once again. "just like old times," Max and Cloe had joked, knowing that in fact it was anything but.

It was around a month after the tornado that the pair acknowledged that sacrificing a whole town for a single person meant something. Showed something. That had really been the first time that they realized that maybe there was a place for them other that Arcadia Bay. That maybe, if they were together, any place would do really.

Max thought of this while Chloe fell back asleep, her head on the brunette's stomach, breathing deeply and evenly. They stayed in this position until Max's digestive system, insulted at being ignored for so long, loudly voiced its opinion. Being careful not to rouse her girlfriend (her _girlfriend_ shethough; it still sounded strange to her) the hungry teenager went downstairs to prepare some breakfast. Joyce and David had decided they needed a holiday and, disguising their enthusiasm by saying it would be good practice for moving away from home, Max and Cloe had been given the empty house for a week.

She sat at the table and dug in to her bowl of cereal, considering what to do that day. They had both considered taking their relationship to the next level, but neither felt comfortable, what with the tornado and all that. Suddenly, Chloe's agitated voice rang out through the house.

"Max? Max? Max, where are you? MAX!" The brunette rushed upstairs as her girlfriend's calls got louder and more desperate until she finally flung the door open to find Chloe, eyes puffy with tears and wide with fear, clutching at the sheet they had slept in. Seeing her in such a state, Max rushed to her and hugged her.

"Nightmare?" she said knowingly and felt the head on her shoulder nod. She broke from the embrace only to switch their positions so that she leant on the wooden head-board and pushed her blue-haired counterpart onto her lap, cradling her head to her chest. she let Chloe listen to her heartbeat which she tried to steady. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Chloe took a shuddering breath and began, quietly and stuttering slightly.

"It was just as we were driving away from the town, after…" Max nodded, understanding. "Yeah… So we were driving away and you know how there was no-one there when we did it? Max…" she stopped for a moment and looked at her girlfriend with newly shed tears on her face; her voice dropped to a whisper. "Max they were all there. Dead. Just standing there looking at us. Rachel, Frank, Kate, Victoria, that creepy dude who liked you… Even Mum and Dad and David, Max. They were all there Max and _we_ put them there Max and oh God…" she collapsed into tears once again as Max comforted her; told her it was somehow alright when it just plain _wasn't_. Choe looked at the brunette again, her eyes pleading. "Do you ever think of them? The ones who didn't make it?"

"I can't sleep." Max told her through tears and hiccups of her own; falling apart herself. "I can't sleep at night because I keep thinking… If I had chosen differently then maybe… maybe there were more than two choices. Maybe I could have saved everyone, maybe we could still be there with everyone… I can't stop thinking about them Chloe. About how it was _my_ _fault_ that they're gone and if I had never used my powers in the first place none of that would have happened in the first place and…"

"No, Max, don't." said Chloe, interrupted. "You might be supermax but even you can't do everything. There was no other way! If you hadn't used your powers, I would have _died_ in that bathroom."

"But I _knew_ what was happening as soon as he took out the gun, Chloe. If I had just pressed the fire alarm right _then_ … none of this would have happened and…" Max trailed off as Chloe stopped her.

"Max. You couldn't have known. How could anyone have known. It's not your fault cause how could _anyone_ have done that? How could anyone have a seen a gun pulled out and react fast enough to… you know? No one could have. I couldn't have, Mum couldn't have, only a soldier or some shit who's seen that crap before could have… Max you're not a soldier. You couldn't have saved everyone. How could anyone expect that out of _anyone_ , much less an 18-year-old photography geek?"

And despite it all, Max smiled at the endearment. And Chloe smiled too. And somehow they knew that even though it _wasn't_ ok, not by a long shot… that it was better. At least they kept each other from going mad from the pain, the uncertainty, the _guilt_.

Despite it all they had survived. Joyce had survived, David had survived and other people to. Schoolmates who had texted Max, some people Chloe had met, who she'd held half-friendships with for a while. People being interviewed on TV, some in hospital, some not. People who had happened to be on holiday.

Despite it all, Max and Chloe were alive.

And despite it all, they had each other.

 **A/N:**

 **Well that's a thing I guess… I've had this chapter in my computer for a about a week now and I'm still not happy with it by a long shot. I don't know, something about the dialogue feels slightly unnatural… But I tried and this thing came out. I guess it's maybe alright for a first fic in the Life Is Strange fandom.**

 **I really am sorry I've been away for so long but after much consideration I've cleared all doubts I expressed at the end of my last post. I want to continue writing. The YouTube marked is just so saturated right now that it's almost impossible to get noticed and more importantly, I prefer writing.**

 **I'd tell you that you can expect more regular uploads from now on but I really would just be lying to you XD.**

 **Anyway, I've waffled on for long enough. I hope you enjoyed the story and that you will stay cool until next time.**

 **-Max**


End file.
